Pod Mods for "Skinny" cars, and, spacer placement

[chrisguyw]

Hi Folks, I recently entered a proxy for Austin Healey "Sprites" (very narrow), and the rules stipulated that the tires had to be fully enclosed (could not be seen from above). I was planning on building a Hybrid chassis, a Slot-it inline center section, with a brass/wire perimeter, and when I did the math, it became apparent that even with the 7mm rear tires/wheels, the bloody thing was just too wide.........at this stage I was too lazy to re build a narrower back end,.....so,....a few simple mods were made to the pod.

1/ I removed the "fingers" that hold the typical Slot-it spherical bushings.
2/ Carefully reamed the holes to 3/16" (the OD. of my single flanged oilites)
3/ Installed (glued) the oilites with the flanges on the inside of the pod uprights......I have installed lots of bushings with the flanges on the outside,....just depends on how narrow you need to go

This narrowed the rear end by a good 1/4" inch, and I was good to go. Additionally, the glued in oilites are more precise than standard (non glued) spherical bushings.

Below is a pic of standard pod compared to a modified one.



I am also not concerned that the flanges are on the inside (some may think that this could lead to a punched through bushing in the event of a crash), as on all inlines I place my spacers between the gear and the inside of the rear uprights. The spacers center the gear so it does not run on the motor shaft (reducing friction), and, most importantly (on an inline) ensures that my gear mesh is consistent, and bulletproof. It is pain, and may require several widths of spacers, but, it is well worth the effort.......and, I believe critical for the perils of proxy racing. Most folks use spacers between the outside of the pod and the inside of the wheel, and while this is certainly fine, you are counting on the wheels not moving laterally on the axle (this invariably happens.....a shot on the outside of the wheel can move the wheel "in" binding the rear end,.......or,....normal running invariably move the wheels out a tad, which affects your gear mesh.

A couple of shots of "inboard" spacers. It is a pain, and generally needs several different widths, but, you can set (permanently) the gear lash in both directions.







Back to pod narrowing........I recently built a Scaleauto, and wanted to replace the "180" motor with a "130".........this obviously required a completely different gear ratio, and in order to keep the tooth count of both pinion and spur in an acceptable range (not wanting to deviate from .5 pitch to much for obvious mesh reasons), I had to go to a larger dia. spur. This required moving the spur inboard, and here again narrowing the pod by removing the "fingers" was the perfect solution.

This is a pic. of a narrowed Slot-it anglewinder pod.........remove the fingers, ream the holes, install single flange oilites.



Hope this may give one or two of you some ideas on your next build !!

Cheers
Chris Walker

PS.......A pic. of the "Skinny" Sprite that was the reason for me starting this thread ;)

[dw5555]

Rather than all the spacers why not just run axle stops outboard at each of the bushings?

Dave

[chrisguyw]

[Brumos RSR]

Chris, I love this and recently spent hours and learned many new four letter to 12 letter words in frustration to mount the spacers inboard. What's the secret to get this done efficiently?

[Audi1]

Patience, grasshopper................!

Allan

[HomeRacingWorld]

Solid gold post sir. Thank you.

[Brumos RSR]

[chrisguyw]

[Dogsbody]

Great idea and nice work as well! I'm a big fan of the Policar F1 motorpod. Granted, you're limited on gearing but it is an elegant solution in some cases and it does get the COG quite low.